The Gawler Craton gold rush continued unabated on the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday, with some small mining hopefuls more than doubling their share price and taking their combined capitalisation to more than $500 million.

Helix Resources , which has spent much of the past decade as a platinum-exploring "penny dreadful", has more than quadrupled its share price in the past two weeks, gaining another 57c to $1.91 yesterday after hitting a peak of $2.00.